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Tinker tree farm creates, green, healthy environment

  • Published
  • By Danielle Gregory
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  The new environmentally sound slogan is "going green." Tinker however is not new to "going green." They have housed a tree farm since 1993.

The Tinker tree farm construction began in 1993 and the first seedlings were planted in spring of 1994.

In the early 1990's, then Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill A. McPeak, in an effort to support the America the Beautiful program's goal of planting one billion trees a year directed that all Air Force installations become Tree City USAs by 1994, said John Krupovage. At the same time, The Tree Bank Foundation in Oklahoma expressed an interest in cooperating with Tinker AFB to construct a tree farm on base. In response, Tinker established a tree farm in 1994.

The farm has a variety of trees including bur oak, chinquapin oak, shumard oak, cedar elm, winged elm, eastern redbud, Kentucky coffee tree, cottonwood (cottonless variety), eastern red cedar and Caddo maple.

The process of the tree's life is one that is watched with great care here. Once seedlings have been planted, primary tree-related maintenance includes pruning, irrigating and training saplings to encourage well-formed trees. Disease and insect control have not been issues.

The tree farm is a nursery for trees. Inexpensive seedlings, about 2-feet long and the diameter of a pencil, are planted and grown out to transplantable size. The trees are then planted in locations on and off base.

"The most unique feature of the tree farm is the method in which they are grown," Mr. Krupovage said. "We do not just plug seedlings into the open ground. They are planted in root control bags, which reduce harvest labor considerably. Also, this method is very volunteer-friendly and allows us to get the community involved in transplanting efforts."

The tree farm makes it possible to accomplish many tree planting projects which likely would not happen otherwise. With today's budget constraints, tree planting is not on the top of any unit's project list. However, by Tinker growing their own trees and utilizing community volunteers, they are able to overcome fiscal constraints and get great things done.

"We realize a 50 to 75 percent cost savings by growing our own trees versus purchasing them from area nurseries. We also eliminate the need for hard-to-get project labor funds by volunteer participation," said Mr. Krupovage.

In 2004 and 2005, volunteers planted more than 1,300 seedlings at the tree farm. Just this last spring, Norman High School FFA students transplanted more than 60 of the trees along Soldier Creek. In exchange for their services, the students received tree-farm trees for their school campus. Nine-hundred more trees are slated to be transplanted by spring of 2010.

The trees provide free ecological services and improve environmental quality such as reducing air pollution, decreasing storm water runoff intensity and flooding and decreasing temperatures through shading.